Pranking Paul
by QuartzClaw
Summary: Gary, Drew and Ash decide to joke around with Paul.


**Hello! QuartzClaw here! **

**This idea just randomly popped into my head and I felt like writing, so I thought "Why not?" And here is the result. Happy reading!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or size!**

* * *

**Pranking Paul**

"This is soooo heavyyyy!" May moaned, referring to her red schoolbag.

"Tell me about it. I can't believe we got so much homework today! And it's only been two classes!" Dawn agreed, looking equally distressed under the weight of her pink bag.

"I'm going to have to cut down on my time in the gym today." Misty complained.

"I thought I had it bad last year. Grade ten's worse!" May continued her rant before noticing her third friend. "Leaf! Don't tell me you've started already!"

Leaf had her nose stuffed in one of her textbooks as she walked with the group.

"I have to!" she answered without looking up. "If I can read the assigned pages now, I can get right to doing the questions when I go back to the dorms. It'll save time, and I might actually manage to have some time left to beat Gary's record!"

The other three girls rolled their eyes, knowing that she was referring to Gary's high score in some video game the both of them had gotten obsessed with since last week.

Speaking of Gary...

"Coming through! Out of my way!" Gary darted around the corner, and came running frantically down the hall towards them. "Pardon me, ladies! Make way!"

The group of girls got out of the way just in time as the boy nearly trampled them. May got a glimpse of his face while he dashed past. His expression made it look like he either wanted to burst out laughing, or scream in terror for his life.

"Gary, what in the world...?"

Leaf had finally separated her eyes from the content of her book, and, like the other three, was now staring after him with a questioning gaze. The other students in the hall stopped what they were doing to see why the popular Gary Oak was running like his life depended on it. The answer to his strange behaviour came in the next moment.

Paul showed up from the same way Gary had. He skidded to a stop as his eyes darted around, like a predator, figuring out which way his prey went.

He was a strange sight. He was completely drenched, everything from his clothes to his hair. And for some reason, he was holding an empty bucket.

"GARY OAK, GET BACK HERE YOU COWARD, SO I CAN POUND YOU TO DEATH AND SEND YOU TO YOUR GRAVE!" Paul's voice thundered as his eyes locked onto his target, and he chased after him. He didn't need to tell anyone to get out of his way.

Everybody knew Paul Shinji as the intimidating, cold, antisocial, expressionless companion of Drew, Gary and Ash. But most of all, they knew him as the silent type, and right now, he was anything but. It was no wonder everyone was so terrified of him right now.

Paul's shoes left a trail of wet footprints as he ran. The girls looked at one another nervously before following it, forgetting about their torturous pile of homework.

They caught up to them just in time to see Paul bend down, and fling the bucket in his hand across the floor, so that it rolled at top speed and ended up getting caught in Gary's foot. Gary stumbled and fell, but before he could get up, he found himself pinned to the ground, with Paul holding his arms tightly with one hand, and his hair in the other.

"So, you thought you could outrun me after what you did?" Paul hissed in his ear.

"Not really, because after all... Ooomf!" The rest of Gary's sentence was cut off when his captor pushed his head down hard, causing his face to make contact with the floor.

"You think this is funny, do you?"

"Actually, yes. It's hilarious."

"Well, enjoy it while you can, because you're not going to be having fun when I'm through with you!"

"What did he do?" The huffing girls had finally managed to arrive beside the two boys, and May couldn't hold in her curiosity any longer.

"What do you think?" Paul spat. "I'm soaking wet, and there is a bucket right there." He gestured to the empty bucket on the floor with his head.

"You poured water all over him?" Leaf guessed disbelievingly. "Gary, what were you thinking?!"

"Well, don't say you didn't see this coming." Misty said unsympathetically (if anything, she seemed to be enjoying his pain). "You couldn't have expected to pull off a joke like that on Paul without getting killed."

"You say that as if the fun's all over." Gary, still stuck to the floor, smirked evilly. "We're just getting started."

"'_We're_'?" Paul repeated, noting Gary's use of the plural.

"Wait!" Dawn gasped, realizing something. "Are you saying that Drew and Ash-"

"INCOMING!" The girls only just got out of the way as two bucket-fulls of water came flying in their direction from either side.

Paul found his back and head drenched once again in ice-cold water. He got up abruptly, and caught a glimpse of Ash and Drew, now holding empty buckets, running off, down separate halls.

"You little...!" Paul suddenly realized he had let go of his prisoner, and turned to see that he had already escaped, this time taking the bucket Paul had thrown with him.

"WHEN I GET YOU THREE," Paul roared out to them, " YOU ARE GOING TO BE SO _DEAD_!"

* * *

For the rest of the day, May and her friends only caught glimpses of Gary, Ash and Drew. Most likely because they were too busy running away from Paul.

Paul, on the other hand, could be seen chasing after one of the three through the halls all day. Every time he got close to catching one, one of the other two would suddenly emerge from the crowd or another hallway and attack him with yet another water-filled bucket.

Where they got those buckets and how they kept refilling them so fast was a mystery, but Paul had no interest in solving it; he was evidently more intent on ripping his so-called 'friends' to pieces.

Later, the girls found themselves in their dormitory, huddled around Leaf as she waited for Gary to pick up his cell phone to answer her call. They were all both surprised and impressed that the boys had managed to evade Paul for so long, and they just wanted to call to check on them (more to see if they would pick up as proof that they were still alive).

"Hello?" A voice sounded from the other side. Leaf's phone was on speaker, which allowed all the girls to hear what Gary was saying.

"Yup, still up and living, from the sound of it." Leaf snickered.

"Who is it? Is it Paul?" Drew's voice could be heard faintly from Gary's end.

"Nope, it's just Leafy. Hold on, I'll put this on speaker..."

"Aww, Drew's still alive too!" May whined.

"Gee, that hurt April."

"Ash? You there? Or did you two leave him to his doom?" Misty wanted to know if her best friend was still out of Paul's clutches.

"Don't worry, Mist! I'm all right!" Ash sounded cheerful, as well as a bit out of breath from all that running around.

"You guys got him pretty angry, you know. It's gonna get worse the longer you avoid him." Dawn told them.

"Dawn's right; Paul's anger has reached a dangerously high level." Leaf added. "By the way, Drew, aren't you his dorm-mate or something?"

"Drew's bunking with us for the night!" Ash informed them. "We already moved his stuff here, 'cause he might have to stay with us for a while."

"You don't mean you're going to continue this tomorrow, do you?" May asked nervously.

"May, you don't get it." Gary said, sounding relaxed. "It all started as a small, harmless prank. Splash him with water. Of course we sort of knew we'd get in big trouble with him, but we ignored that. We thought if we avoided him long enough, he'd give up and let it go."

"Wait, you seriously thought _Paul _of all people would give up if you pranked him like that?!" Leaf clarified.

"No, not really. I was sort of in denial that he'd try to kill me, see? But I took the precaution of convincing Drew and Ash to back me up if things got ugly. I was the only who was supposed to get him drenched, and I was supposed to get away. And I would have, if I hadn't left my bucket behind.

"So Drew and Ash ended up having to help me after all. It was only supposed to go up to there, at most. But things really weren't going as we planned. Paul overreacted, and made it his goal to have our heads. So, even though the prank was over, we were still on the run, out of fear.

"Then, finally, came the acceptance. We knew that he was going to kill us, and that we probably can't avoid him for the rest of our lives. So we made a vow. As long as we're still alive, we would have as much fun as we want. That way, if we don't make it, at least we wouldn't have spent the final days of our life hiding in fear."

Gary concluded his explanation with a serious tone of voice. There was a silence for a second, before he, Ash, and Drew burst out laughing.

"They've lost it." Misty murmured. "Nice knowing you, Ash. I guess you were okay too, Drew. Gary, I don't really care."

"Hey! I feel insulted!"

"By making him angrier, aren't you just guaranteeing he'll get you guys back in the worse way possible?" Dawn reasoned.

"Oh, come on! He's already angry; how much worse can he get?" Gary sounded pretty confident.

"Actually, Dawn has a point." Drew said thoughtfully. "The longer we avoid him, the worse his revenge will be. So the sooner we hand ourselves over..."

"...the higher chance we have of surviving." Ash finished.

"No way I'm handing myself over! I want to live; I value my life!" Gary was indignant.

"How did you manage to get us into this?" Ash grumbled.

"Actually, yeah. How did you?" Drew suddenly realized the fact that he had gone along with one of Gary's- _Gary's_\- plans.

"You were probably too busy thinking about your hair to comprehend what he was asking of you." May suggested.

"What was that, June? You were thinking about my gorgeous hair?" You could almost see the smirk on Drew's face.

"Hey, that's not what I said!" May protested."You need to get your hearing checked!"

"Well, good luck to all of you for the next few days." Leaf said with a sigh. "You'll need it."

* * *

The next day was similar to the last. Gary, Ash and Drew could be seen either sprinting up and down the halls to escape an oncoming Paul, or splashing water all over their purple-headed victim at every chance they got.

Paul could be seen stomping around, hunting for the boys who were the reason he was being drenched for the last two days. You could hear him cursing as one of his prey escaped him, or if he got hit again.

May and the other girls, once again, found themselves in their dormitory on Leaf's phone.

"How long are you gonna keep this up? You can't ditch class forever." Leaf reasoned.

"We're not ditching class! Well, at least not all of them. We only go to the classes that Paul isn't a part of." Gary sounded proud of his cleverness.

"Aren't you risking failing the classes you aren't going to?" Dawn pointed out.

"Not if you're paying other students to get the work for you." Gary shot back.

BANG BANG BANG! Their conversation was interrupted by loud knocking (more like hammering) at the door. The girls looked at one another.

"I think it's him." May whispered nervously. Misty felt everyone's gaze turn to her.

"What?" she asked cautiously.

"You go open the door, since you're the bravest out of all of us." Dawn ordered.

"What! Why me? You guys are just as brave!"

"Yeah, but you're the only one who can take him on if he attacks." Leaf reasoned. Misty continued looking reluctant before finally giving in.

"Fine! But only because he might break down the door." Misty begrudgingly got up. The second she turned the door handle, Paul came barging in.

He was still soaking wet, and, to Dawn's displeasure, dripping water all over the floor. His clothes were sticking to him, and his hair was shining from its wetness.

"Where are they?!" he snarled at the girls. "I know you know. Answer me!"

"Sheesh, rude much?" Misty rolled her eyes as she returned to her friends' side to back them up.

"Umm, uh..." May was cracking under pressure.

"They're... they're..." Dawn tried to continue.

"They're in Ash and Gary's dorm. Drew's staying with them at night." Leaf answered calmly, not appearing the tiniest bit worried.

"DUDE! Did you just sell us out?" Gary's outraged voice sounded through Leaf's phone. Leaf just smirked.

"Oh, so you guys _are_ in the dorms. I'm willing to bet you paid that guy to tell me you were somewhere else, huh?" Paul's attention was now directed to Leaf's phone. "Well, let me tell you this. Once I get my hands on you, you are going to regret ever letting me enter into your lives." With that, he stomped out the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Hey, Sir Rudeness, you could at _least_ clean up the mess you made!" Dawn called after him, eying the wet footprints he left behind with distaste.

"I'm scared..." came Ash's voice.

"Okay, men, pack up! We're moving out!" Gary's last command could be heard before he hung up.

The girls glanced at one another.

"They're dead, right?" The other three nodded to confirm May's statement.

"You know, Leaf." Misty addressed her friend with narrowed eyes. "When you were making me get the door for Paul, I thought you were because you were afraid of him. But when you were actually talking to him, you didn't seem frightened at all."

"Me? Scared of our old buddy Paulie? Never!" Leaf folded her hands behind her head as she fell back on the couch she was sitting on. "I just made you get the door because I was too lazy to get up and do it myself." she admitted.

"Why, you little...!"

"You seemed perfectly fine with selling out Gary." Dawn noted. "Some loyal friend you are."

"Hey, he kind of deserves it." Leaf defended her actions.

"Like Drew deserves to have that pretty little face of his crushed by Paul's fist." May understood.

"Anyways..." Dawn looked towards the door. "I wonder how those three will survive another day."

* * *

Paul's anger reached its peak the next day. It was the_ third day_ Gary, Drew and Ash were preventing him from staying dry. He was furious, and his hands were itching to tear those three apart.

Paul had gotten up extra early that morning to wait by their dormitory door so that when they came out, he would be able to catch them. Except they didn't.

After more than an hour of waiting, when the occupants of the dorm did come out, Paul found himself looking at two completely different people. When he interrogated them, they broke down, and confessed that Gary had paid them to switch dorms with them for the night. Once Paul had stepped into the school building, he had found himself being showered by Gary, Ash and Drew's buckets of doom.

And now, Paul was hunting for the troublemakers. He couldn't wait to get his hands on them, to shred them into little, worthless pieces...

"Mr. Shinji!" Paul froze as a familiar voice called out to him. He immediately straightened out, erased the fury from his face, and turned calmly to the one who had called him.

"Principal Cynthia." he addressed politely. But inside his head, he was doing some quick thinking.

_Okay, so she probably would want to know why I'm dripping wet right now. The janitor probably told to her that I'm the one who has been leaving a wet trail everywhere I go. How exactly am I supposed to explain this to her?_

Fortunately for Paul, his polite, respectful attitude towards teachers, as well as his high grades always put him in the teachers' 'good books', which meant he might be able to talk his way out of trouble this time. Especially with Principal Cynthia, since she always seemed to favour him for some reason. Maybe because she viewed him as a model student.

"Mr. Shinji, you are soaking wet and leaving a mess everywhere you go. I've been receiving complaints from the janitor for the past two days. What I want to know is _why_." She looked at him sternly, her eyebrow raised and her hands on her hips. She looked more irritated rather than angry, which was a good sign.

"I'm sorry, Principal Cynthia. I'll go back to the dorms to clean up." Paul apologized.

"I didn't ask you to do that, I asked you _why_ you have been like this for the past few days."

"It was just a harmless prank some idi-... my friends pulled on me. It's nothing big." He had to use great effort to stop himself from calling them 'idiots' instead of 'friends'.

"Nothing big? A harmless prank that lasts _three days_? Is there any reason for this?"

"To be honest, I don't know. I am very sorry if this has been a bother."

"It most certainly has been! I want to know the full story, from start to end. And I want to know who these... '_friends_' are."

Paul hesitated, though it didn't show on his face. He would have preferred to deal with this himself, but it looked nearly impossible to get out of this situation with the principal any other way. He opened his mouth to start explaining. But there was no need, because in the next second, their conversation was interrupted.

"INCOMING!" There, right in front of Principal Cynthia, Gary, Ash and Drew emptied their buckets on Paul before starting to make their way down the hall. They didn't notice whom Paul was talking to until she called out to them. Very, very angrily.

"MR. OAK! MR. HAYDEN! MR. KETCHUM!" The three boys froze and turned around in horror. To make matters worse, they had accidentally hit their principal as well as their target.

Paul was wearing his famous blank expression, but on the inside, he was celebrating triumphantly.

_Yes yes yes yes yes YES!_

Gary, Drew and Ash slowly walked up to Principal Cynthia.

"We're sorry, we didn't mean to-" Drew tried to say.

"You three have been causing trouble for the last three days! Not to mention your treatment of a fellow student. Is this any way to treat your friend?" she scolded.

The boys didn't seem sorry at all for their prank on Paul, but they definitely regretted allowing themselves to get caught by Cynthia because of their carelessness.

"They didn't cause me too much trouble." Paul put in, his blank face still present. But his friends knew he was not bailing them out; he was just playing 'good boy', something he had never done before. The glint in his eye showed that he was both mocking them, and guaranteeing that Principal Cynthia wouldn't punish him as well.

"Since you three seem to like buckets and water so much, you three would love mopping all the hallways on Saturday, starting at nine in the morning. See you then." Cynthia walked away, leaving a smirking, victorious Paul, as well as three other groaning boys, behind her.

* * *

"So. Having fun?" It was Saturday, and Leaf, along with May, Misty and Dawn, was having a great time annoying Gary, Ash and Drew as they mopped the floor.

"Be quiet..." Gary grumbled.

"Drew, you missed a spot!" May pointed out. Drew only mumbled something in return.

"You do deserve this, you know." Misty told them.

"Oh, come on! We've been doing this for two hours straight; have some sympathy!" Ash moaned.

"You seem to be enjoying this." Dawn addressed Paul, who had been following the boys around, watching them suffer.

"Yes. Yes I am." He smirked as he spoke.

"I don't see why _he_ doesn't have to clean up, too." Ash complained.

"It's because he's a _model student_." Gary spat.

"Someone's bitter." Dawn noted.

"Well, look at the bright side." Drew tried to stay positive. "At least Paul's got his revenge, so we won't have to worry about that anymore."

"Who says I got my revenge?" Paul spoke up. "This is Principal Cynthia's punishment for causing a mess around the school. My revenge is going to be worse. And painful. But since I'm in a better mood than before, I'll take you guys out to pick your coffins and tombstones. My treat."

The boys looked at one another.

"Hey," Gary muttered to the other two. "What's better than a bucket full of water?"

"A BUCKET FULL OF SOAPY WATER!" the three yelled as they emptied their soapy buckets all over the purple-head before sprinting down the hall for their lives.

"OH, YOU ARE _SO_ GONNA GET IT NOW! COME BACK HERE YOU COWARDS, AND FACE ME LIKE MEN!"

The girls shook their heads as he disappeared, chasing after them. They never learned, did they?

* * *

**Aaaand done! Just a small, random one-shot. What did you think?**

**Please review, and thanks for reading!  
**

**Bye bye, and have a smiling day! :)**


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